As a client you need to have peace of mind that, we as financial planners, focus on understanding your financial needs because we have taken the trouble of understanding you as a person. It is our goal to take all your financial aspects into account and only then to design an appropriate financial plan and [...]
A few weeks back, we tried to answer the questions: How Much should I save? We talked about the following 4 points: 1) What are you saving for? 2) Defining your time horizon 3) Defining your savings ability 4) Implementing and monitoring your plan It holds true in financial markets that the longer your [...]
For most people money comes like a turtle and goes like a rabbit. And our Minister of Finance pulled a rabbit or two out of his hat when he delivered the Annual Budget Speech on 25 February 2015. Mr. Nene and his cabinet had one clear message - when it comes to your money and [...]
People often ask themselves the question - Why do we pay tax? We might not all agree with the government, but one thing we can agree upon is the tax- free savings accounts implemented since 1 March 2015. Tax–free investments in a tax efficient vehicle have been implemented to encourage households to save for the [...]
An age old question with no definite answer, it seems. Let us begin by answering this question in the same way in which one allegedly eats an elephant - Bit by bit. 1) What are you saving for? This could range from a nice pair of shoes to retirement to an emergency fund for [...]
As Laurence J. Peters once said “If you do not know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else”. In actual fact, that is what financial planning is all about. A crucial step in mapping out your financial future well-being by structuring your short and long term goals and arranging your financial [...]
First up, a famous quote credited to a man better known for his general theory of relativity, Albert Einstein: “Compound Interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it… he who doesn’t … pays it.” We all hear about compounding interest and how it is interest earned upon [...]
This may be one subject we try and avoid as it is not something anyone wants to think about. We all want to live longer but the reality is that at some stage we will die, we just never know when. This is why you need to ensure you have a proper Last Will and Testament [...]
And here we are in the middle of the 1st month into 2015. According to Statisticbrain.com, at this point in the month approximately 29% of people have already given up on their New Year’s Resolutions. At least they tried, right? It is a very interesting time of the year for most people, as an unofficial [...]
In recent weeks, the JSE has reminded investors that volatility is the name of the game when investing in equities over short periods of time. Investors who had invested new money over the last year (and expecting to see past returns replicated) would have been disappointed to see low, or even negative returns on their [...]
